Book Thief cover It’s hard to find a book that’s simple, accessible and also complex enough to be uniquely meaningful. Empathetic but not trite, lovingly crafted without being pretentious in the slightest. But here is one of those books, where the author has carved a masterpiece on paper like a sculptor does of marble, a book I can recommend to both the casual reader and the intellectual alike. A book I would place upon the shelf, its very spine serving as a reminder of the experience between its covers.
“The Book Thief ” is the main character of this tale set in WWII Germany, an abandoned girl haunted by the death of her little brother taken in by colorful, intense foster parents. Woefully uneducated, her foster father’s loving lessons teach her the power and pleasure of words, which she begins to collect. Well, no, to steal, really. Hence the title. But this precocious little girl doesn’t narrate the story — that’s left to the brilliantly wrought specter of death, who of course is everywhere in Germany during that time period, scooping up soldiers, Jews and civilians alike. Death, who teaches us what it feels like to carry out this most thankless, tireless and darkly poetic of jobs. Each death, he/she says, is shaded by color in his/her memory. On the day of a bombing, for instance…

Yes, the sky was now a devastating, home-cooked red. The small German town had been flung apart one more time. Snowflakes of ask fell so lovelily you were tempted to stretch out your tongue to catch them, taste them. Only, they would have scorched your lips. They would have cooked your mouth.

Lovelily? I love it. And I loved the whole book, which never dragged or became cumbersome, but strung out like a tale told by a fire. A story about reading written for readers — there are so many good books based on this premise.

Thanks to Jes’s reviews for the recommendation. Haven’t we always shared a fascination with WWII and the Holocaust, Jes? We did (*blush*) construct a diorama of a concentration camp in the fifth grade for an independent project. Man, we were geeks. Very morbid geeks.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars – Hardcover book club selection